I think we still sometimes underestimate the power of new media and the places it can take us. By now, you have probably heard of Greyson Michael Chance.  Greyson a 12-year-old Oklahoma native from Cheyenne Middle School in Edmond, became an overnight celebrity on April 28 by singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” song during a church talent show. He wasn’t spotted at the talent show though. It was only when the video was placed on YouTube that he became a star.

Within three days, Greyson had more than 12 million hits on YouTube. Today, Greyson has more than 30 million hits. On May 12 Greyson appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and performed his version of “Paparazzi” live.

Ellen was instantly enamored with Greyson and quickly signed him as the first artist on her new record label, eleveneleven. This story is a testament to what new media can do. If Greyson would have done an interpretation of Britney Spears’ song “Oops I Did it Again” seven years ago, he would still be singing in talent shows.  But, thanks to new media and the technological changes that have occurred in recent years, his talent was able to be viewed by millions of people with the click of a mouse.

Public relations practitioners can learn a lot from this story. We can help our clients create their own “paparazzi” success with the use of new media. You can customize your message for your target audience, or you can send it out to gain new audiences. And the best thing about it is the price – free.

With Facebook recently surpassing 500 million users and other social networking tools popping up left and right, college football coaches can now keep tabs on high school prospects constantly.  What those prospects say online could make or break their futures.

According to Mississippi State Head Coach Dan Mullen, social media has had an impact on the program’s recruiting efforts.

“We certainly have crossed a recruit off our board because of the different things I've seen them post on Facebook," Mullen said. "Maybe that's not the type of character player, the type of person we're looking for, what they're doing in their social life, what we're looking for in our program.”

Back in my high school days of dial-up modems and ICQ, I never imagined what I was saying could cost me a football scholarship (not that I was getting one in the first place).  However, the head coach at East Northern Technical School for Average Athletes (I made that up, so no need to Google it) may have been posing as one of my friends while I complained about doing homework.  As a result, I didn’t get a scholarship to ENTSAA.

So, high school football players, think about that the next time you post something on Facebook.  We’re all watching you.

Amazon reported earlier this week that the sale of e-books has passed print sales. For every 100 hardcover books sold, the online retailer sells 143 Kindle digital books (http://bit.ly/c5wO1k). The advent of e-books is not surprising in an age where three of the top 10 Amazon Kindle best-sellers range from $0 to $1.16. It’s time for modern historians to take fingerprints, gather witness statements and file the evidence in the investigation of the murder of mass media.

Technology is shifting the concept of traditional media into “media of screens.” From Twitter and Facebook on iPhones to magazines on iPads and novels on Kindles, pixels are becoming the standard of communication. Phone calls have become text messages, voicemails have become e-mails and the line between computer displays and televisions gets narrower than Tulsa streets during construction.

How long can we blindly continue creating content for one form of mass media while plugging our ears and denying the newspaper would ever feature video content, or that radio stations would require photographs? Let’s not wait to be cutting-edge until the day when all phone calls are operated via webcam, when printers and scanners are comical to schoolchildren and every book sold requires a battery. Social media networks are increasingly becoming the primary source of household news. If a story can’t be told in 140 characters (with a link!), it will most likely be buried with the hardcover books of yesterday.

I’ve heard some people in the Internet marketing world tell stories of how they were handed a piece of information by a customer and told to “make it viral.”

If only it were that easy.

Developing relationships and creating effective networks is one thing. Going viral is an entirely different animal.

Consider two recent Oklahoma cases – one with a pop star and another with the weather.

By now, you’ve heard about Greyson Chance, the boy wonder from Edmond who turned a talent show performance into a record deal, 60,000 Facebook fans and an appearance on national TV. Within a week, a YouTube video of Greyson singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went from a handful of views to millions. As of today, 18 million people have watched this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxDlC7YV5is

Tracing the viral origins of the Greyson phenomenon is a little tricky. All it takes is one influencer to be hit with the “this is awesome” bug for millions to see it.

A new Oklahoma video making its way into our collective viewing on YouTube is one featuring Sunday’s massive hail storm. In just a few days, it’s already up to 1.5 million views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFv2W7Duqiw

This happens because of the ecosystem built into the Web of blogs that are filled with the odd and unusual. See the link to one viral video on Neatorama.com, for instance, and you’re bound to see it on TheDailyWhat, Huffington Post, BoingBoing or a number of other sites – including your friend’s Facebook status.

There’s no magic formula, unfortunately, except for having someone tip your content in just the right way that it creates momentum.

The other viral key is to be unique. “Viral” is a tough term to define. In the end, it’s about having something different, unique and interesting to entice Web users. Greyson Chance did it with not just his performance, but with the gawking girls behind him too. The hail storm video did it with a “wow” factor.

Catching either one of those factors on video? Not easy.

I've been talking a lot to clients and to audiences lately about leveraging the content they already have between their ears. Everyone is an expert on something, as I've said before on this blog. It's just up to you to decide what that is and how you want to communicate it online.

Once that first step in online strategy is made - "I want to write a blog about plumbing" - the second step is what hangs some folks up: the length and the presentation of the content.

I'm here to say that quality always trumps quantity on the Web. A good two-minute video or 200-word blog is always appreciated more than lengthy (and often boring) content. The Web has grown up being bite-sized and if you want the same readers who consume other blogs, you'll need to find a place where you can fit. You can do that by being short, but interesting and precise.

I think about my favorite blog on the Web - marketing genius Seth Godin's. He writes in five, six or seven paragraphs, all solid gold. Check him out here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

That's not enough? Look at the list of the 150 best management and leadership blogs (http://www.noop.nl/2010/04/top-150-management-leadership-blogs.html). They are serving an audience of CEOs and CEO hopefuls, so the bloggers respect their time and blog concisely.

Do the same and it will be less worries for you and more respect for your blog's audience.